Two young Dalit activists were attacked by a gang of four members on the Kancheepuram-Vandavasi by-road near here on Monday night.

According to the convenor of Makkal Mandram, Mahesh, two unidentified persons standing on the by-pass road with their motorcycle signalled to Balu and Thangathamizhan, who were going to Orikkai from Kizhkathirpur, to stop. The duo suddenly attacked both of them. They ran for safety through a field. However, Thangathamizhan had sustained injuries on his head in the attack, Mahesh claimed. They claimed that the attackers had warned them to stop sheltering inter-caste married couples in their organisation.

Recently, an inter-caste couple, involving a Dalit boy and caste Hindu girl from a village near Arakkonam in Vellore district, sought asylum at Makkal Mandram.

This pre-planned and deliberately orchestrated attack appears to be an act of revenge by dominant caste forces for sheltering Sandhya and Sivaraman, the inter-caste married couple.
She is Vanniyar girl and has completed B.Sc B. Ed.
He is a Dalit and has done his B.E Civil Engineering. Sandhya’s family was dead against this marriage. They got married in Feb. this year.

Twenty-one-year-old Sandhiya had, in March, petitioned the Vellore police seeking protection fearing threat from her family. She said her parents were opposed to her relationship with Sivaraman. After her parents filed a complaint, Sandhya sent a letter to police informing that she was living with her husband.